Larry Michael on the Redskins' progress

By
Dan Steinberg

This is perhaps the most Larry Michael moment of all time. It comes from Tuesday's episode of Redskins Nation, when he mentioned that the Redskins went 2-0 this season against the remaining NFC playoff teams.

"As soon as Green Bay and Chicago won their games, I got to thinking, you know, the Redskins beat both of these teams. And I'm gonna ask a couple of the guys who are gonna come on the show today -- Doc Walker and Larry Weisman -- does beating the two teams that are in the championship game, is that a sign of progress for the Washington Redskins?

"Having won just six games, two more than last year, and a much ballyhooed season for the Redskins going into 2010, the 6-10 record obviously not satisfactory. But the fact that they defeated the two teams that are in the NFC championship game, is that a sign of progress? I'm on the side that's gonna say yes, but obviously not enough progress. But to be able to beat teams that are good enough to make it to the championship game means the Redskins did some good things this year."

Well, yeah. Except, as Jamie Mottram has pointed out, the 2008 Redskins actually went 3-0 against teams that were good enough to make it to the NFC championship game, beating Arizona once and Philly twice. And the putrid 2009 Redskins had the eventual Super Bowl champs dead to rights, except for Shaun Suisham missing a gimme, and still wound up going to overtime. That makes Washington 5-1 against NFC championship game participants over the last three seasons, which have been generally horrendous.

So I'm on the side that's gonna say nah, beating good teams and losing to bad ones is not really a sign of progress. Sorry.

Steinz, I will pay you $100 to only refer to him as "Baghdad" Larry Michael from now on. And all the beer you can carry. Baghdad Larry is, simply put, a waste of perfectly good body organs that could be harvested to help others.

Good sweet lord, could Larry be ANY more of a shill? I wonder if he has the earpiece with his script being fed to him by Snyder (ala Jim Ross and Vince MacMahon), or if the organization went all out and paid for him to get the Johnny Mnemonic hook up in the back of his head that allows him to instantly download all of Snyder's talking points directly to his brain...

This kind of thing happens all the time in the NFL and is only worth noting in jest (because it is kinda funny). Even the worst team in the NFL has enough talent to put together a win against the best of teams. And not to discredit the hard work of players, but a lot of games are decided by luck. The teams really are so close in talent, that one or two "unlucky/lucky" plays can determine a game. We lost a lot of games this year due to bad luck (ugh, missed fieldgoals and dropped ints). On the flipside, knocking out the Eagles biggest weapons early in the first game was lucky. Winning on a holding penalty was lucky (how many times was that exact hold uncalled through out the rest of the year?). Every game there's a handful of completely unpredictable events that occur. If your team is on the benefiting side of those events, more times than not, you are going to win games (see: 2009-10 Saints).

Snyder still doesn't get it. Despite the efforts to be more up front and more accessible this season, he continues to employ this mouth-breathing, company-line-towing clown. Micheal is the personification of the denial, idiocy and incompetence that has plagued this team for over a decade. Yet he continues to be the voice and TV face of the team.

I can't stand Larry Micheals Dumb a$$. I love my team to the end, but will criticize them when need be. So that means I have been on their a$$ for about a little more than a decade now. But Micheals is a joke, I know they pay the man but have some balls or shut the hell up.

I can't stand Larry Micheals Dumb a$$. I love my team to the end, but will criticize them when need be. So that means I have been on their a$$ for about a little more than a decade now. But Micheals is a joke, I know they pay the man but have some balls or shut the hell up.

I can't stand Larry Micheals Dumb a$$. I love my team to the end, but will criticize them when need be. So that means I have been on their backs for about a little more than a decade now. But Micheals is a joke, I know they pay the man but have some balls or shut the hell up.

I can't stand Larry Micheals he's an idiot. I love my team to the end, but will criticize them when need be. So that means I have been on their backs for about a little more than a decade now. But Micheals is a joke, I know they pay the man but have some balls or shut the hell up.

Larry Micheal is a highly paid cheerleader.... kind of like a second rate walking PR firm to get us jacked about the skins and the progress made this year and think about next year :).... The Redskins could have gone 1-15 this year but Puppet probably would have said, but we beat Dallas and that is something to build on... Iwish we could have some commentators with some Huevos to stand up to napolean and is Q-rating Redskins PR fluff. the team is rebuilding and not expected to compete for the division or playoffs for another 2-3 years. At least Ihave respect for leonsis who admits to everyone when the lean years are going to be and mark out your plan... that is the difference between a good and bad leader/owner..... shhht, Iwish Leonsis owned the Skins!

Larry Michaels is company line spewing hack. No one should ever take anything he says seriously. He is a joke. I feel sorry for Steinberg having to watch that excrable "show" he does. It's sickening that he is still the voice of the Redskins.

Larry Michaels is the biggest YES MAN I have ever seen in the history of sports....where did they find this clown....I love the Redskins been my team since I was 6 yrs old, I cant watch Redskins Nation because of him...people write in to the show dude is suppose to read the comments of Redskins fans, but this dude gets so upset by the comments that fans send in....yeah sure some are off the wall but at the same time some of them are legitimate questions but because this clown dont like it he thinks its fine to rag the fan......I look at this dude like a beta-max.....like dude do they still make them? in closing.....get ur nose out of D Snyder rear end....PLEASE!!!!

You people give Snyder way too much credit. You really believe he is writing scripts for Larry Michael? That he is controlling the message from Redskins Park in all areas? He's not even censoring the folks at Sports980. Why would he do it here? The Snyder propaganda needs to calm down. He's not that smart nor forward thinking.

Why would anyone care what Larry Michael has to say? He is an idiot. The only person who kisses Snyder's backside more is Vinny Cerrato.
The fact that the Skins beat the Bears and the Packers this year means about as much as the year the Cowboys only win came against a Super Bowl bound Washington Redskins.
The only thing that can be gleamed from this that we once again have bad coaching. Someone who is more about their ego and their system than about the team. If the Redskins have the talent to beat the top 2 teams in the NFC, and only finish with 6 wins, the fault falls completely on the coach and how he prepares his team.

Why would anyone care what Larry Michael has to say? He is an idiot. The only person who kisses Snyder's backside more is Vinny Cerrato.
The fact that the Skins beat the Bears and the Packers this year means about as much as the year the Cowboys only win came against a Super Bowl bound Washington Redskins.
The only thing that can be gleamed from this that we once again have bad coaching. Someone who is more about their ego and their system than about the team. If the Redskins have the talent to beat the top 2 teams in the NFC, and only finish with 6 wins, the fault falls completely on the coach and how he prepares his team.

For those who wish for Mighty Ted Leonis to lift all teams from the dirt... there's a reason many of us called Ted "Cotton Candy" in his first years w/the Caps: all sugar, hot air, color, and spin... no nutritional value. Ted is *exactly* the kind of person to blog "we're 5-1 again division champion and super bowl level teams."

For people new to the Caps (welcome, welcome all of you), Ted had a 5 year plan that GAGGED. He didn't own it's gagging and in fact tried to dodge it. It was only when the team was so low, with zero chance to not only win but SELL TICKETS (you used to be able to take a group of 4 to Verizon center and easily get a separate row of seats for everybody), and a generational talent/league lockout was on the horizon did Ted fire sell.

DC had Langway, Stevens, Gartner, Murphy in their prime, at the same time. For those who don't know these names, they're ALL Hall of Fame players. In 98 the Caps went to the NHL Finals -- my point: DC has had great hockey and didn't catch fire like this time. It's OV, folks. Not Ted.

And for Redskins fan who want Ted (and I'm not a Redskin fans for what its worth) be careful: Ted has won how many playoff series in his nearly 20 years of primary sports ownership with the Caps and Mystics? Also check out how many playoff series Ted's won in this time.

Careful what you wish for... or, at least know the full deal.

He writes a mean blog; but so far his teams have done squat and, as is, when OV leaves, there goes Rock the Red with him.

For those who wish for Mighty Ted Leonis to lift all teams from the dirt... there's a reason many of us called Ted "Cotton Candy" in his first years w/the Caps: all sugar, hot air, color, and spin... no nutritional value. Ted is *exactly* the kind of person to blog "we're 5-1 again division champion and super bowl level teams."

For people new to the Caps (welcome, welcome all of you), Ted had a 5 year plan that GAGGED. He didn't own it's gagging and in fact tried to dodge it. It was only when the team was so low, with zero chance to not only win but SELL TICKETS (you used to be able to take a group of 4 to Verizon center and easily get a separate row of seats for everybody), and a generational talent/league lockout was on the horizon did Ted fire sell.

DC had Langway, Stevens, Gartner, Murphy in their prime, at the same time. For those who don't know these names, they're ALL Hall of Fame players. In 98 the Caps went to the NHL Finals -- my point: DC has had great hockey and didn't catch fire like this time. It's OV, folks. Not Ted.

And for Redskins fan who want Ted (and I'm not a Redskin fans for what its worth) be careful: Ted has won how many conference championship series in his nearly 20 years of primary sports ownership with the Caps and Mystics? Also check out how many playoff series Ted's won in this time.

Careful what you wish for... or, at least know the full deal.

He writes a mean blog; but so far his teams have done squat and, as is, when OV leaves, there goes Rock the Red with him.

The Redskins will not get better until there is a seismic shift in strategy - which is unlikely to happen under Snyder.

Snyder is a brash younger owner enamored by aging brand names - whether it is older washed up coaches (Shanny), players (Neon Deon, Archuletta, Haynesworth), GM (Allen -just because he is son of a great coach Puh-leeze) etc.

Until he gets a young up and coming coach who will build thru the draft and a GM who can actually recognize talent we are doomed to medicrity. Ten years and counting.....

Larry Michael does fine as a play-by-play announcer. I still miss Frank Herzog, and wish Sam Huff would retire. As for Michael's assessment, he reminds me of Dave Spadaro in Philly. A friend of mine who is a die-hard Eagles' fan calls him the Eagles' lap dog. Lap-dog Larry has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

LM is a HOMER. Very rarely says anything TRULY negative about the team, other than to say they weren't very good in one week, or that they played poorly. He really thinks they're close, and his optimism, while good to see, sounds fake quite a few times. Look, when they stink, say it! Too many times I've been to games where the fans pour their heart out, and the Redskins end up losing...only to hear LM say on the post game show that they played good enough to win.. Never does he say the fans deserve better...NEVER!

First of all, some users have referred to Larry Michael as Larry Michaels...remember no S. Larry sees the world through burgundy and gold colored glasses. Since the Redskins finished last again and didn't make the playoffs again, I watch Redskin Nation every day to get my minimum daily requirement of every useless bit of Redskins information, and Larry never disappoints. I like to talk back to the TV when Larry is on air to provide my personal rebuttal to every stupid statement he makes. My wife and kids tell me I'm crazy, but hey, you've got to be crazy to continue supporting this team. The little tidbit about the Redskins beating both the Packers and Bears, I had that one figured out even before Larry told me about it. Here's another morsel, in the 2000 season when the Ravens won the Super Bowl, the Redskins beat the Ravens 10-3 in week 7. I use that one on my Baltimore friends all the time and to this day they still laugh. My favorite Larry statement, and he's made it several times recently, is he hopes the Redskins retain Clinton Portis, because a healthy Portis still has something left in the tank. If I hear him say that one more time, I will go crazy!

scg1055 - I can do you one better. A few years back (I think it might have been the year of the Archuleta signing, but I'm not sure), Lap Dog Larry had everyone's favorite non-GM, Vinny the Weasel, on Redskins Nation. During the segment where they read e-mails aloud, Larry actually read one where the author of the e-mail commented that successful franchises (citing the Ravens, Eagles and Patriots) build the meat of their teams through the draft, not through free-agency.

Larry's response (and I'm paraphrasing here, so forgive me): "Folks, that is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. You can't count on the draft to build your team. Most players that come out of college just can't play football at this level. You build winning teams by acquiring free agents who are proven winners and counting on them to lead you to a champioinship."

Vinny: (after doing his weasel laugh) "Larry, you can tell some people just don't know a thing about the NFL. Nobody finds talented players in the draft."

I still laugh to this day thinking about that entire exchange. Indeed, Vinny - some people obviously DON'T know a thing about the NFL.

Well duh. Everybody knows the team sucks, but who wants to watch a show (or read an article) featuring negative commentary regarding their favorite team? The show serves a purpose. It’s funny how many people still don’t get that. This much is true. You definitely would have an unrealistic perspective on the team if you somehow insulated yourself from the national sports media and ONLY watched Redskins Nation. Other than that, who cares if Larry presents a positive outlook, even if his commentary is flawed?

The skins have been terrible since Larry Michaels strong armed Frank Herzog out of the play by play booth. He really is bad at calling games. It's pathetic and this organization has been punished because of it.

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